Children of Unending Night
by MBosco
Summary: This is a fragment of a story I have been thinking a lot about: Solomon Black has been a vampire for just over a year and has finally gotten used to all of what it means though there are still several part of his humanity he cannot let go of. Despite this, he managed to capture the heart of the daughter of Count Dracula: Marcilla and they picnic by the light of a hunter's moon...


The hunter's moon shined down on the little clearing that I had discovered a few days earlier in the Carpathian Mountains. It overlooked a section of the Borgo Pass and many of the snowcapped peaks were clearly visible. To the human eye, they were beautiful in the silver rays of moonlight but to the eyes of a vampire, which could take the light and filter it so that even a small amount would allow them to see as if it were daylight and the snowcapped peaks would look like they were covered in millions of tiny silver crystals. In a word, it was breathtaking. As we made it to the clearing, I found a patch of even ground and spread the blanket. Marcilla looked down at me hesitantly as I opened the cooling bag - one of the best inventions that had been created while I was in my coffin during a long rest. "Are you sure this is what male humans do to woo females? It really doesn't seem like it would be all that romantic?"

I smiled at her. She was wearing a red blouse, black leather pants and over it all, a long fur coat. She was without a doubt the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I handed her a glass of blood and explained, "Well these usually happened during the daytime on beautiful days and had food and wine involved. Come over and sit down, 'Cilla."

She sighed slightly and came over, sitting down next to me and saying, "Maybe the others are right - Father, Lady Carmilla, Roman and Alucard. They say that you are holding on to your humanity too tightly and that as soon as you let it go, you will be very powerful."

I chuckled at that as I handed her a glass of blood. Yes I had heard her father, who was Count Dracula, and the others say such things. She took the glasss and said, "Thanks. Tell me more about these picnics. Why is it that they were so wonderful to humans? Why did so many use them to become even more intimate?"

I had to think about for a few moments. Finally I shrugged and said, "I suppose it's because that when one is out in nature and alone with one that they love and after they have had a few glasses of alcohol and their inhibitions were gone then it makes for a pretty amazing time. If I remember right, several of my boys got their sweethearts pregnant before going off to war and their girls' fathers arranged shotgun weddings for them when they got back."

A rather surprised but expectant look crossed her face along with a mischievous smile. Raising her glass she said, "Well maybe after a few glasses of blood and after some pleasurable company, that being you…" she said with a smile and a wink, "… perhaps our inhibitions will slip away. After all, we vampires don't need alcohol to loose ours. We don't have inhibitions to begin with."

I smiled again, liking very much the sound of that. We clinked our glasses and drained them. After that, she said, "That's better. Now kiss me sweet, lover of my heart."

I was more than happy to. I placed my hand on her cheek and stroked it with my thumb before both pulling her closer and leaning in. My cold lips met her voluptuous red ones and then, for that moment, for those minutes that we were their together, nothing else mattered. Again and again, our lips pressed against each other's and our bodies began to follow. After minutes of the most wonderful moments of my living and undead existence, we separated out of necessity. The thirst seemed to amplify as our passions grew. We drank several more glasses to try to fortify ourselves against it and we got nice and close as we finished our last mouthfuls, after which she placed her hand on my chest with her left hand and wrapped her right hand around my neck. She pulled me close and, with so much passion that it would have taken my breath away, kissed me again. The kisses became more and more powerful and we seemed to become intoxicated as we went on. The moon was high overhead by the time we stopped again and had to take another break. I poured us more blood and we drank deeply after clinking the glasses again. I poured another for us each and we drank again. When we were finished, I was going to lean in and kiss her again but she lifted her hand, placing a finger on my lips. "Slow down, Lover. How was training with Alucard and Roman this evening? Did you learn anything new?"

I must have had a pleading look on my face because she laughed and I said, "Look when we get back, my father is going to ask, 'What did you do out there tonight with that so fine young boy Solomon Black? What subjects did you train on and what did you discuss?' and what should I tell him? 'Oh we didn't train on or talk about anything, Daddy. We made sweet, sweet love under the hunter's moon. Yup the only noises we even made were sighs as we swayed back and forth together as we rolled naked on a blanket. The cold didn't bother us cause our entire bodies were touching.' How do you expect that he will respond to that answer? I don't know how over protective he is since this hasn't happened before, me going out with a boy before. So why don't we talk so that I can give him a satisfactory. If you like…" and she smiled with all the suggestive invitation that the female sex of our species could bring to bear, "…we can even make a game out of it if you like."

And she began to toy with the buttons on her red blouse. Standing and walking around to try and calm down a little bit, I said, "Okay. That sounds good to me. Ask away, my love."

She nodded and said, "Okay, let's see. What did you do with Alucard today? He's teaching you weather manipulation right and says you're doing pretty well, even melding it with your fighting. Why don't you give me some details?"

I put my fingers through my dark and turned my eyes to the sky as I tried to focus on the question and not the gorgeous vampire teasing me with her big brown eyes and her fingers playing with her blouse buttons. "Well I'm finally able to control the storm without feeling like I'm holding a handful of tiny fish underwater. The mist I can call and send away at will and controlling the temperature is become easier and easier, too. We actually started melding fight with the sword and turning into dust or mist, just like your father did when he and I fought in the stadium when he tested me. I never thought being able to literally evaporate would be so simple in a fight."

She had unfastened several of the buttons at the bottom and was slowly and torturously working her way up as she bit her lower lip and said, "Go on, darling. Tell me what Roman taught you about calling and commanding the creatures of the night."

I nodded, trying not to stare as her pale, soft flesh showed whenever the wind buffeted her loose blouse. "Well first off, I never thought it would be so difficult. It is not like training a dog to come, sit and stay. I touched the minds of dozens of bats and rats. It was like trying to listen to, focus, harmonize and teach a bunch of human children under the age of four to sing an opera. Finally, I was able to and managed to control them fairly well. The wolves were different though. I had to learn how to identify the alpha wolf and dominate his mind without shattering it, which I thankfully did on the first try. It was hard to make it understand that I was more powerful than it and more worthy of being the leader of the pack but once I did, it came and heeled at my beck and call."

She stood, half the buttons unfastened and she walked over to. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear, "Show me. Call the creatures of the night so that I can see and then I am all yours, my love."

I smiled down into her face for several moments before turning to the forests and rocks surrounding us. Clearing my mind, I called out both with my voice and with my mind, "Listen to me, children of the night. Come to me. Heed my call and come to me. I command you. Come."

My voice gained a strangely melodious tone as I called and it echoed off the peaks as though I had been using a microphone. I didn't have long to wait before the woods were filled with the noises of a thousand creatures of the night. Wolves howled, bats and rats squeaked and owls hooted. Within moments, a dozen wolves sat in a half ring before us with hundreds of rats in front of and beside and behind all of them. Owls sat in the branches, their great eyes glowing in the night and they hooted loudly. Over our heads were swarms of vampire bats. I looked down at Marcilla, she who I loved and she had a look of delight on her face. With a smile, I pointed to the alpha wolf and called it forward. With its head down and its tale low to the ground, it trotted forward and sat. Marcilla scratched it between the ears and under the jowls and kissed it on the head. She then turned to me and began to slowly unfasten the few buttons on her blouse before saying, "I think I'll let you get the last ones my love and then you can help me out of the rest before I help you out of your clothing."

I reached up to unfasten the last three or so buttons when I heard and felt a half dozen voices commanding the creatures of the night to flee, leaving us alone. We both recognized one of the voices and it filled us with surprise, frustration and rage. As Marcilla buttoned her blouse back up, I turned to the trees and said, "Damn it, Royce. Come out here where I can see you and your goons. Can't you leave me in peace for a single night or do you have to stalk me like a jackal?"

A derisive snort came from the trees and six dark figures strode out. They were all armed and the platinum haired Royce crossed his brawny arms over his burly chest and said, "You continually spurn my offer and disregard my requests. I'm beginning to take it personal now, Solomon Black. Now I have you here alone in the night with your lover. This will be a pleasure."

He stepped back and commanded the other five vampires, "Kill him and restrain the mistress. We'll find something to do with her when he is finished. Go."

I drew my swords and glared and she drew hers beside me. "Do you really think that these five will be able to kill me and subdue her, Royce? You're an idiot as well as a coward. After I kill them, you will be next."

Just before I clashed blades with the first assailant, a howl rent the night air. It wasn't like the howl of a common wolf for it reached us through our minds as well as our ears. All six of our attackers and Marcilla blanched and looked around wildly as if in great fear. I whispered to her, "What the hell was that?"

She answered with a whisper that was barely above a simple exhale of breath. "Werewolves. We attracted the attentions of werewolves when we called the creatures of the night."

I shouldn't really have been surprised. I mean, since we vampires existed it only makes sense that werewolves do to. But the sheer terror that was written on the face of my love and the faces of my enemies, I knew that something was terribly wrong. Royce turned to his goons and said, "Get back to the sanctuary." And then he called into the night, "Children of the night, come to me. Find me here. I'm waiting for you."

With a sneer, he turned and evaporated into a cloud of mist which disappeared into the trees. Marcilla ran back to the blanket and began packing things up, saying as she did, "We can't be here and we can't leave anything behind or else they will be able to track us. Some on, Sol. We need to get this stuff up and out of here."

I wrapped everything up in the blanket, heedless of the breaking glasses before throwing my black leather coat. We ran as fast as our legs could carry us, nearly making the trees before a large, black shape emerged from it. It had the lower legs of a wolf and black fur of a wolf covered its body and its huge head was the head of a wolf but its front legs and torso were those like those of a humans. It looked just like I would have pictured a werewolf. Will a growl it approached slowly. Marcilla pulled out a red handled knife with silver inlaid in the blade and said, "Pull out that Iroquois tomahawk, the one inlaid with silver. Only weapons with silver can hurt or kill a werewolf. Even beheading them won't help if the blade doesn't have silver in it."

I reached behind and grabbed my tomahawk, holding it ready as we slowly advanced on the enemy. Suddenly, a second dark shape emerged from the trees off to our left and we froze. When the third dropped from the branches of a dark pine, I heard Marcilla whimper slightly and say, "We are so dead."

Before I could reply in anyway, whether to agree with her or try to console her, a blur of motion came from the trees and landed next to us. To my never ending relief and delight, I recognized Alucard. He handed me a long dagger with silver in its blade and hissed, "Listen. Marcilla needs to be able to get away. Solomon, you and I will attract their attention and she can make a run for it."

Marcilla began to protest and I said, "You both need to make it back alive. I'll distract them, you both run."

I turned to the werewolves and said in a voice of command that reached them mentally and verbally, "Come my children of the night. Follow me. Catch me. Come. CATCH ME!"

I took off running as fast as my legs could carry me, leaping into the trees and from branch to branch. When I took a split second to look back, I was satisfied to see that all three of the werewolves were following, drool and howls coming from the many toothed mouths. The chase was on.


End file.
